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Messages
of
Sri Auroiindo & The Mother
Publisher :
SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM
PONDIGHERRY
All Rights Reserved
IFirst published in 1949
SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM PRESS
PONDICHERRY
PRINTED IN INDIA
1218/49/2500
MESSAGE TO SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS
I HAVE heard your broadcast. As one who has
been a nationalist leader and worker for India's
independence, though now my activity is no longer
in political but in the spiritual field, I wish to
express my appreciation of all you have done to
bring about this offer. I welcome it as an oppor-
tunity given to India to determine for herself, and
organise in all liberty of choice, her freedom and
unity, and take an effective place among the world's
free nations. I hope that it will be accepted, and
right use made of it, putting aside all discords and
divisions. I hope too that friendly relations between
Britain and India replacing the past struggles, will
be a step towards a greater world union in which,
as a free nation, her spiritual force will contribute
to build for mankind a better and happier life.
In this light, I offer public adhesion, in case it
can be of any help in your work.
31-3-1942 SriAurobindo
m
II
This is the word that came to the Mother when she
heard on the Radio the declaration of June 2, 1947
issued by the Viceroy to the leaders of Indian parties ;
it has been approved by Sri Aurobindo:
A PROPOSAL has been made for the solution of our
difficulties in organising Indian independence and
it is being accepted with whatever bitterness of
regret and searchings of the heart by Indian leaders.
But do you know why this proposal has been made
to us? It is to prove to us the absurdity of our quarrels.
And do you know why we have to accept these
proposals? It is to prove to ourselves the absurdity
of our quarrels.
Clearly, this is not a solution; it is a test, an
ordeal which, if we live it out in all sincerity, will
prove to us that it is not by cutting a country into
small bits that we shall bring about its unity
and its greatness; it is not by opposing interests
against each other that we can win for it prosperity;
it is not by setting one dogma against another
that we can serve the spirit of Truth. In spite of
all, India has a single soul and while we have to
till we can speak of an India one and in-
divisible our cry must be:
Let the soul of India live for ever!
3-6-1947 The Mother
[3]
Ill
INVOCATION
O OUR Mother, O Soul of India, Mother who hast
never forsaken thy children even in the days of
darkest depression, even when they turned away
from thy voice, served other masters and denied
thee, now when they have arisen and the light is
on thy face in this dawn of thy liberation, in this
great hour we salute thee. Guide us so that the
horizon of freedom opening before us may be also
a horizon of true greatness and of thy true life in
the community of the nations. Guide us so that
we may be always on the side of great ideals and
show to men thy true visage, as a leader in the
ways of the spirit and a friend and helper of all
the peoples.
15-8-1947 The Mother
IV
THE FIFTEENTH OF AUGUST, 1947
AUGUST 15th, 1947 is the birthday of free India*
It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning
of a new age. But we can also make it by our life
and acts as a free nation an important date in a
new age opening for the whole world, for the politi-
cal, social, cultural and spiritual future of humanity.
August 15th is my own birthday and it is natu-
rally gratifying to me that it should have assumed
this vast significance. I take this coincidence, not
as a fortuitous accident, but as the sanction and
seal of the Divine Force that guides my steps on
the work with which I began life, the beginning:
of its full fruition. Indeed, on this day I can watch
almost all the world-movements which I hoped to
see fulfilled in my lifetime, though then they looked
like impracticable dreams, arriving at fruition or
on their way to achievement. In all these move-
ments free India may well play a large part and
take a leading position.
The first of these dreams was a revolutionary
movement which would create a free and united
[5]
India. India today is free but she has not achieved
unity. At one moment it almost seemed as if in
the very act of liberation she would fall back into
the chaos of separate States which preceded the
British conquest. But fortunately it now seems
probable that this danger will be averted and a
large and powerful, though not yet a complete
union will be established. Also, the wisely drastic
policy of the Constituent Assembly has made it
probable that the problem of the depressed classes
will be solved without schism or fissure. But the
old communal division into Hindus and Muslims
seems now to have hardened into a permanent
political division of the country. It is to be hoped
that this settled fact will not be accepted as settled
for ever or as anything more than a temporary
expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously
weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain
always possible, possible even a new invasion and
foreign conquest. India's internal development and
prosperity may be impeded, her position among
the nations weakened, her destiny impaired or
even frustrated. This must not be; the partition
must go. Let us hope that that may come about
naturally, by an increasing recognition of the
necessity not only of peace and concord but of
common action, by the practice of common action
and the creation of means for that purpose. In this
unity may finally come about under whatever
[6]
form the exact form may have a pragmatic but
not a fundamental importance. But by whatever
means, in whatever way, the division must go;
unity must and will be achieved, for it is necessary
for the greatness of India's future.
Another dream was for the resurgence and
liberation of the peoples of Asia and her return to-
ner great role in the progress of human civilisa-
tion. Asia has arisen; large parts are now quite
free or are at this moment being liberated: its
other still subject or partly subject parts are moving
through whatever struggles towards freedom. Only
a little has to be done and that will be done today
or tomorrow. There India has her part to play
and has begun to play it with an energy and ability
which already indicate the measure of her possi-
bilities and the place she can take in the council
of the nations.
The third dream was a world-union forming
the outer basis of a fairer, brighter and nobler life
for all mankind. That unification of the human
world is under way; there is an imperfect initia-
tion organised but struggling against tremendous
difficulties. But the momentum is there and it
must inevitably increase and conquer. Here toa
India has begun to play a prominent part and,
if she $an develop that larger statesmanship which
is not limited by the present facts and immediate
possibilities but looks into the future and bring*
[7]
it nearer, her presence may make all the difference
between a slow and timid and a bold and swift
development. A catastrophe may intervene and
interrupt or destroy what is being done, but even
then the final result is sure. For unification is a
necessity of Nature, an inevitable movement. Its
necessity for the nations is also clear, for without
it the freedom of the small nations may be at any
moment in peril and the life even of the large and
powerful nations insecure. The unification is there-
fore to the interests of all, and only human
imbecility and stupid selfishness can prevent it; but
these cannot stand for ever against the necessity
of Nature and the Divine Will. But an outward
basis is not enough; there must grow up an' inter-
national spirit and outlook, international forms and
institutions must appear, perhaps such develop-
ments as dual or multilateral citizenship, willed
interchange or voluntary fusion of cultures.
Nationalism will have fulfilled itself and lost its
militancy and would no longer find these things
incompatible with self-preservation and the integ-
rality of its outlook. A new spirit of oneness will
take hold of the human race.
Another dream, the spiritual gift of India to the
"world has already begun. India's spirituality is
entering Europe and America in an ever increasing
measure. That movement will grow; amid the
disasters of the time more and more eyes are turning
[8]
towards her with hope and there is even an in*
creasing resort not only to her teachings, but to her
psychic and spiritual practice.
The final dream was a step in evolution which
would raise man to a higher and larger consciousness
and begin the solution of the problems which have
perplexed and vexed him since he first began to
think and to dream of individual perfection and a
perfect society. This is still a personal hope and
an idea, an ideal which has begun to take hold both
in India and in the West on forward-looking minds.
The difficulties in the way are more formidable
than in any other field of endeavour, but difficulties
were made to be overcome and if the Supreme Will
is there, they will be overcome. Here too, if this evo-
lution is to take place, since it must proceed through
a growth of the spirit and the inner consciousness,
the initiative can come from India and, although
the scope must be universal, the central movement
may be hers.
Such is the content which I put into this date of
India's liberation; whether or how far this hope
will be justified depends upon the new and free
India.
Sri Aurobindo
Broadcast from All India Radio, Trichinopoly Station on
August 14, 1947.
"REMAIN firm through the darkness; the light is-
there and will conquer."*
4-2-1948 Sri Aurobindo
*To a devotee who had wired : 'Darkness and sorrow spread^
after Bapuji's death. Children (people) pray message.'
VI
A MESSAGE FROM SRI AUROBINDO *
I WOULD have preferred silence in the face of these
circumstances that surround us. For any words we
can find fall flat amid such happenings. This much,
however, I will say that the Light which led us to
freedom, though not yet to unity, still burns and
will burn on till it conquers. I believe firmly that
a great and united future is the destiny of this nation
and its peoples. The Power that brought us through
so much struggle and suffering to freedom, will
achieve also, through whatever strife or trouble,
the aim which so poignantly occupied the thoughts
of the fallen leader at the time of his tragic ending;
as it brought us freedom, it will bring us unity. A
free and united India will be there and the Mother
will gather around her her sons and weld them
into a single national strength in the life of a great
and united people.
5-2-1948 Sri Aurobindo
* In answer to a request from the All India Radio, Trichinopoly.
[ii]
VII
ON THE PRESENT SITUATION*
I AM afraid I can hold out but cold comfort for the
present at least to those of your correspondents who
are lamenting the present state of things. Things
are bad, are growing worse and may at any time
grow worst or worse than worst if that is possible
and anything however paradoxical seems possible
in the present perturbed world. The best thing for
them is to realise that all this was necessary because
certain possibilities had to emerge and be got rid of
if a new and better world was at all to come into
being; it would not have done to postpone them
for a later time. It is as in Yoga where things active
or latent in the being have to be put into action in
the light so that they may be grappled with and
thrown out or to emerge from latency in the depths
for the same purificatory purpose. Also they can
remember the adage that night is darkest before
dawn and that the coming of dawn is inevitable.
But they must remember too that the new world
*In answer to a query from a disciple*
[12]
whose coming we envisage is not to be made of the
same texture as the old and different only in pattern
and that it must come by other means, from within
and not from without so the best way is not to be
too much preoccupied with the lamentable things
that are happening outside, but themselves to grow
within so that they may be ready for the new world
whatever form it may take.
18-7-1948 Sri Aurobindo
[13]
VIII
SRI AUROBINDO'S MESSAGE
{To the Andhra University on the occasion of the Presenta-
tion of the Sir Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddi National
Prize to him at the Convocation held at the University on
Dec. 11, 1948.)
You have asked me for a message and anything I
write, since it is to the Andhra University that I am
addressing my message, if it can be called by that
name, should be pertinent to your University, its
function, its character and the work it has to do.
But it is difficult for me at this juncture when
momentous decisions are being taken which are like-
ly to determine not only the form and pattern of this
country's Government and administration but the
pattern of its destiny, the build and make-up of
the nation's character, its position in the world with
regard to other nations, its choice of what itself
shall be, not to turn my eyes in that direction.
There is one problem facing the country which
concerns us nearly and to this I shall now turn and
deal with it, however inadequately, the demand
[14]
for the reconstruction of the artificial British-made
Presidencies and Provinces into natural divisions
forming a new system, new and yet founded on the
principle of diversity in unity attempted by ancient
India. India, shut into a separate existence by the
Himalayas and the ocean, has always been the
home of a peculiar people with characteristics of its
own recognisably distinct from all others, with its
-own distinct civilisation, way of life, way of the
spirit, a separate culture, arts, building of society.
It has absorbed all that has entered into it, put
upon all the Indian stamp, welded the most diverse
elements into its fundamental unity. But it has also
been throughout a congeries of diverse peoples,
lands, kingdoms and, in earlier times, republics also,
diverse races, subnations with a marked character
of their own, developing different brands or forms
of civilisation and culture, many schools of art and
architecture which yet succeeded in fitting into the
general Indian type of civilisation and culture.
India's history throughout has been marked by a
tendency, a constant effort to unite all this diver-
sity of elements into a single political whole under
a central imperial rule so that India might be
politically as well as culturally one. Even after
a rift had been created by the irruption of the
Mohammedan peoples with their very different
religion and social structure, there continued a
constant effort of political unification and there was
[15]
a tendency towards a mingling of cultures and their
mutual influence on each other; even some heroic
attempts were made to discover or create a common
religion built out of these two apparently irrecon-
cilable faiths and here too there were mutual
influences. But throughout India's history the poli-
tical unity was never entirely attained and for this
there were several causes, first, vastness of space
and insufficiency of communications preventing the
drawing close of all these different peoples; secondly,.
the method used which was the military domination
by one people or one imperial dynasty over the rest
of the country which led to a succession of empires,
none of them permanent; lastly, the absence of
any will to crush out of existence all these different
kingdoms and fuse together these different peoples
and force them into a single substance and a single
shape. Then came the British Empire in India which
recast the whole country into artificial provinces
made for its own convenience, disregarding the
principle of division into regional peoples but not
abolishing that division. For there had grown up
out of the original elements a natural system of
subnations with different languages, literatures and
other traditions of their own, the four Dravidian
peoples, Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab,
Sind, Assam, Orissa, Nepal, the Hindi-speaking
peoples of the North, Rajputana and Behar. British
rule with its provincial administration did not
[16J
unite these peoples but it did impose upon them the
habit of a common type of administration, a closer
intercommunication through the English language
and by the education it gave there was created a
more diffused and more militant form of patriotism,
the desire for liberation and the need of unity in
the struggle to achieve that liberation. A sufficient
fighting unity was brought about to win freedom,
but freedom obtained did not carry with it a
complete union of the country. On the contrary,
India was deliberately split on the basis of the
two-nation theory into Pakistan and Hindustan
with the deadly consequences which we know.
In taking over the administration from Britain
we had inevitably to follow the line of least resis-
tance and proceed on the basis of the artificial
British-made provinces, at least for the time; this
provisional arrangement now threatens to become
permanent, at least in the main and some see an
advantage in this permanence. For they think it
will help the unification of the country and save us
from the necessity of preserving regional subnations
which in the past kept a country from an entire
and thoroughgoing unification and uniformity. In a
rigorous unification they see the only true union,,
a single nation with a standardised and uniform
administration, language, literature, culture, art,
education, all carried on through the agency of
one national tongue. How far such a conception.
[17]
can be carried out in the future one cannot forecast,
but at present it is obviously impracticable, and it
is doubtful if it is for India truly desirable. The
ancient diversities of the country carried in them
great advantages as well as drawbacks. By these
differences the country was made the home of
many living and pulsating centres of life, art, culture,
a richly and brilliantly coloured diversity in unity;
all was not drawn up into a few provincial capitals
or an imperial metropolis, other towns and regions
remaining subordinated and indistinctive or even
culturally asleep; the whole nation lived with a full
life in its many parts and this increased enormously
the creative energy of the whole. There is no possi-
bility any longer that this diversity will endanger
or diminish the unity of India. Those vast spaces
which kept her people from closeness and a full
interplay have been abolished in their separating
effect by the march of Science and the swiftness of the
means of communication. The idea of federation
and a complete machinery for its perfect working
have been discovered and will be at full work.
Above all, the spirit of patriotic unity has been
too firmly established in the people to be easily
effaced or diminished, and it would be more en-
dangered by refusing to allow the natural play of
life of the subnations than by satisfying their legi-
timate aspirations. The Congress itself in the days
-before liberation came had pledged itself to the
[18]
formation of linguistic provinces, and to follow it
Hit, if not immediately, yet as early as may con-
/eniently be, might well be considered the wisest
xmrse. India's national life will then be founded
>n her natural strengths and the principle of unity
n diversity which has always been normal to her
md its fulfilment the fundamental course of her
Deing and its very nature, the Many in the One,
/vould place her on the sure foundation of her
Swabhava and Swadharma.
This development might well be regarded as the
nevitable trend of her future. For the Dravidian
egional peoples are demanding their separate
ight to a self-governing existence; Maharashtra
ixpects a similar concession and this would mean
i similar development in Gujrat and then the British
nade Presidencies of Madras and Bombay would
lave disappeared. The old Bengal Presidency had
ilready been split up and Orissa, Bihar and Assam
ire now self-governing regional peoples. A merger
>f the Hindi-speaking part of the Central Provinces
ind the U.P. would complete the process. An
tnnulment of the partition of India might modify
>ut would not materially alter this result of the
general tendency. A union of States and regional
copies would again be the form of a united India.
In this new regime your University will find its
unction and fulfilment. Its origin has been different
rom that of other Indian Universities; they were
[19]
-established by the initiative of a foreign Govern-
ment as a means of introducing their own civilisa-
tion into India, situated in the capital towns of the
Presidencies and formed as teaching and examining
bodies with purely academic aims: Benares and
Aligarh had a different origin but were all-India
institutions serving the two chief religious commu-
nities of the country. Andhra University has been
created by a patriotic Andhra initiative, situated
not in a Presidency capital but in an Andhra town
and serving consciously the life of a regional people.
The home of a robust and virile and energetic
race, great by the part it had played in the past
in the political life of India, great by its achieve-
ments in art, architecture, sculpture, music, Andhra
looks back upon imperial memories, a place in the
succession of empires and imperial dynasties which
reigned over a large part of the country; it looks
back on the more recent memory of the glories of
the last Hindu Empire of Vijayanagar, a magni-
ficent record for any people. Your University
can take its high position as a centre of light and
learning, knowledge and culture which can train
the youth of Andhra to be worthy of their forefathers :
the great past should lead to a future as great or
even greater. Not only Science but Art, not only
book-knowledge and information but growth in
culture and character are parts of a true education;
to help the individual to develop his capacities,
[20]
to help in the forming of thinkers and creators and
men of vision and action of the future, this is a part
of its work. Moreover, the life of the regional
people must not be shut up in itself; its youths
have also to contact the life of the other similar
peoples of India interacting with them in industry
and commerce and the other practical fields of life
but also in the things of the mind and spirit. Also,
they have to learn not only to be citizens of Andhra
but to be citizens of India; the life of the nation is
their life. An elite has to be formed which has an
adequate understanding of all great national affairs
or problems and be able to represent Andhra in
the councils of the nation and in every activity and
undertaking of national interest calling for the
support and participation of her peoples. There is
still a wider field in which India will need the
services of men of ability and character from all
parts of the country, the international field. For
she stands already as a considerable international
figure and this will grow as time goes on into vast
proportions; she is likely in time to take her place
as one of the preponderant States whose voices will
be strongest and their lead and their action deter-
minative of the world's future. For all this she
needs men whose training as well as their talent,
; genius and force of character is of the first order. In
all these fields your University can be of supreme
Service and do a work of immeasurable importance*
In this hour, in the second year of its liberation
the nation has to awaken to many more very consi-
derable problems, to vast possibilities opening before
her but also to dangers and difficulties that may, if
not wisely dealt with, become formidable. There is
a disordered world-situation left by the war, full of
risks and sufferings and shortages and threatening
another catastrophe which can only be solved by
the united effort of the peoples and can only be
truly met by an effort at world-union such as was
conceived at San Francisco but has not till now
been very successful in the practice; still the effort
has to be continued and new devices found which
will make easier the difficult transition from the
perilous divisions of the past and present to a har-
monious world-order; for otherwise there can be
no escape from continuous calamity and collapse.
There are deeper issues for India herself, since by
following certain tempting directions she may con-
ceivably become a nation like many others evolving
an opulent industry and commerce, a powerful
organisation of social and political life, an immense
military strength, practising power-politics with a
high degree of success, guarding and extending
zealously her gains and her interests, dominating
even a large part of the world, but in this
apparently magnificent progression forfeiting its
Swadharma, losing its soul. Then ancient India and
her spirit might disappear altogether and we would
[22]
Tiave only one more nation like the others
and that would be a real gain neither to the world
nor to us. There is a question whether she may
prosper more harmlessly in the outward life yet
lose altogether her richly massed and firmly held
spiritual experience and knowledge. It would be
a tragic irony of fate if India were to throw away
her spiritual heritage at the very moment when
in the rest of the world there is more and more
a turning towards her for spiritual help and a
saving Light. This must not and will surely not
happen; but it cannot be said that the danger is
not there. There are indeed other numerous and
difficult problems that face this country or will
very soon face it. No doubt we will win through,
but we must not disguise from ourselves the fact
that after these long years of subjection and its
cramping and impairing effects a great inner as
well as outer liberation and change, a vast inner
and outer progress is needed if we are to fulfil
India's true destiny.
Sri Aurobindo
[23]
IX
ON PHYSICAL CULTURE
I TAKE the opportunity of the publication of this
issue of the "Bulletin d' Education Physique" of
the Ashram to give my blessings to the Journal
and the Association J.S.A.S.A. (Jeunesse Sportive
de F Ashram de Sri Aurobindo). In doing so I
would like to dwell for a while on the deeper
raison d'etre of such Associations and especially the
need and utility for the nation of a widespread
organisation of them and such sports or physical
exercises as are practised here. In their more
superficial aspect they appear merely as games*
and amusements which people take up for enter-
tainment or as a field for the outlet of the body's*
energy and natural instinct of activity or for a
means of the development and maintenance of the
health and strength of the body; but they are or
can be much more than that: they are also fields
for the development of habits, capacities and
qualities which are greatly needed and of the
utmost service to a people in war or in peace, and
in its political and social activities, in most indeed
[24]
of the provinces of a combined human endeavour.
It is to this which we may call the national aspect
of the subject that I would wish to give especial
prominence.
In our own time these sports, games and athletics
have assumed a place and command a general
interest such as was seen only in earlier times in
countries like Greece, Greece where all sides of
human activity were equally developed and the
gymnasium, chariot-racing and other sports and
athletics had the same importance on the physical
side as on the mental side the Arts and poetry
and the drama, and were especially stimulated and
attended to by the civic authorities of the City
State. It was Greece that made an institution of
the Olympiad and the recent re-establishment of
the Olympiad as an international institution is a
significant sign of the revival of the ancient spirit .
This kind of interest has spread to a certain extent
to our own country, and India has begun to take
a place in international contests such as the Olym-
piad. The newly founded State in liberated India
is also beginning to be interested in developing all
sides of the life of the nation and is likely to take
an active part and a habit of direction in fields
which were formerly left to private initiative. It
is taking up, for instance, the question of the
foundation and preservation of health and physical
fitness in the nation and in the spreading of a
[25]
general recognition of its importance. It is in this
connection that the encouragement of sports and
associations for athletics and all activities of this
kind would be an incalculable assistance. A
generalisation of the habit of taking part in such
exercises in childhood and youth and early man-
hood would help greatly towards the creation of
physically fit and energetic people.
But of a higher import than the foundation,
however necessary, of health, strength and fitness
of the body is the development of discipline and
morale and sound and strong character towards
which these activities can help. There are many
sports which are of the utmost value towards this
end, because they help to form and even necessi-
tate the qualities of courage, hardihood, energetic
action and initiative or call for skill, steadiness of
will or rapid decision and action, the perception
of what is to be done in an emergency and dexte-
rity in doing it. One development of the utmost
value is the awakening of the essential and ins-
tinctive body consciousness which can see and do
what is necessary without any indication from
mental thought and which is equivalent in the body
to swift insight in the mind and spontaneous and
rapid decision in the will. One may add the
formation of a capacity for harmonious and right
movements of the body, especially in a combined
action, economic of physical effort and discouraging
[26]
waste of energy, which result from such exercises
as marches or drill and which displace the loose
and straggling, the inharmonious or disorderly or
wasteful movements common to the untrained
individual body. Another invaluable result of these
activities is the growth of what has been called
the sporting spirit. That includes good humour and
tolerance and consideration for all, a right attitude
and friendliness to competitors and rivals, self-
control and scrupulous observance of the laws of
the game, fair play and avoidance of the use of
foul means, an equal acceptance of victory or
defeat without bad humour, resentment or ill will
towards successful competitors, loyal acceptance of
the decisions of the appointed judge, umpire or
referee. These qualities have their value for life in
general and not only for sport, but the help that
sport can give to their development is direct and
invaluable. If they could be made more common
not only in the life of the individual but in the
national life and in the international where at the
present day the opposite tendencies have become
too rampant, existence in this troubled world of
ours would be smoother and might open to a
greater chance of concord and amity of which
it stands very much in need. More important still
is the custom of discipline, obedience, order,
habit of team-work, which certain games necessi-
tate. For, without them success is uncertain or
[27]
impossible. Innumerable are the activities in life,
especially in national life, in which leadership and
obedience to leadership in combined action are
necessary for success, victory in combat or ful-
filment of a purpose. The role of the leader, the
captain, the power and skill of his leadership, his
ability to command the confidence and ready
obedience of his followers is of the utmost impor-
tance in all kinds of combined action or enterprise ;
but few can develop these things without having
learnt themselves to obey and to act as one mind
or as one body with others. This strictness of
training, this habit of discipline and obedience is
not inconsistent with individual freedom; it is
often the necessary condition for its right use, just
as order is not inconsistent with liberty but rather
the condition for the right use of liberty and even
for its preservation and survival. In all kinds of
concerted action this rule is indispensable: orches-
tration becomes necessary and there could be no
success for an orchestra in which individual mu-
sicians played according to their own fancy and
refused to follow the indications of the conductor.
In spiritual things also the same rule holds; a
sadhak who disregarded the guidance of the Guru
and preferred the untrained inspirations of the
novice could hardly escape the stumbles or even the
disasters which so often lie thick around the path
to spiritual realisation. I need not enumerate the
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other benefits which can be drawn from the train-
ing that sport can give or dwell on their use in the
national life; what I have said is sufficient. At
any rate, in schools like ours and in universities
sports have now a recognised and indispensable
place; for even a highest and completest education
of the mind is not enough without the education
of the body. Where the qualities I have enumerated
are absent or insufficiently present, a strong indi-
vidual will or a national will may build them up,
but the aid given by sports to their development
is direct and in no way negligible. This would
be a sufficient reason for the attention given to
them in our Ashram, though there are others
which I need not mention here. I am concerned
here with their importance and the necessity of
the qualities they create or stimulate for our
national life. The nation which possesses them in the
highest degree is likely to be the strongest for
victory, success and greatness, but also for the
contribution it can make towards the bringing
about of unity and a more harmonious world
order towards which we look as our hope for
humanity's future.
30-12-1948 Sri Aurobindo
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